Hundreds apply to grow, process and sell pot in Washington

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Yevgeniy "Eugene" Frid, general manager of A Greener Today, holds a container of a marijuana strain called Scoobie Doobie "High CBD" in Seattle in this photo made Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. It started with small doses that eased the aches of restaurant work. But over time, Frid found himself addicted to prescription painkillers. “It completely envelopes your whole life.” He tried to quit many times, and when he finally did, he says, cannabis played a huge role _ displacing the opiates with a substance much gentler on the body. Frid, 28, quit his job doing business management and marketing for a video game company when a friend asked him to help start a medical marijuana dispensary. A Greener Today opened in Seattle in 2012 and now serves about 4,000 people. Frid says his most gratifying work is helping patients get off opiates the way he did, so he has mixed feelings about applying for a recreational retail license. The future of unregulated medical marijuana in Washington is dim _ many state officials see it as a threat to the heavily taxed recreational system. Some medical dispensary operators believe they have little choice but to convert to the recreational market. “We don’t know what’s happening,” Frid says. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)